ENERGY saving LED traffic lights were installed along a busy northern suburbs road yesterday, on the first day of the Johannesburg Road Agency’s Letsema programme.
Letsema, a two day multidisciplinary development programme, will intensify service delivery as part of the 90-Day Mayoral Service Delivery Campaign. The campaign was launched on 27 July, and for its contribution, the roads agency has said it will upgrade main roads, repair storm water drainage and install traffic lights.
In line with the programme’s name – letsema is a Pedi word meaning working together – roads agency office staff members will join general workers today, the second day of the programme, out in the field. They will fill potholes, repaint road markings and clean storm water drains in the same area.
“This is a comprehensive approach by JRA [Johannesburg Roads Agency] to render services by closing potholes, patching roads, unblocking storm water drainage systems, and road resurfacing and repainting of faded road markings, among others,” explains Thulani Makhubela, the JRA spokesperson.
“There will be specialised depots that will come together to implement this collective service delivery by targeting a specific area, and make sure that when they leave that area, there is a significant improvement.”
LED traffic lights were installed on William Nicol Drive in Sandton. They are designed to save energy and last for longer. Solar powered traffic lights and the uninterrupted power supplies (UPSes), which will power traffic lights in case of electricity outage, will be installed in specific areas during the 90-day service delivery drive.
A number of blocked storm water drains have already been unblocked in suburbs such as Sandton, Balfour Park and Grayston. The work will spread to other areas on the second day of Letsema.
To clean the storm water drains, a technologically advanced jet generator was used to suck up dirt blocking the drain pipes, in preparation for the rainy season.
Source: Joburg.org.za